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Ta-Nehisi Coates isn’t too happy with a new HBO documentary that tries to puncture the mythology surrounding Muhammad Ali:

The core problem with this doc, as it is with most correctives, is that it subscribes to the same sort of moralistic, heavy-handed, simple-minded logic that it allegedly seeks to debunk. Thus while the public image of Ali as this gleaming unvarnished hero is ridiculous, Thrilla‘s answer is to offer an equally ridiculous image of Ali as a scheming villain who didn’t really win the two fights against Frazier, and robbed him of his rightful place as the greatest of all time.

I have a long post in mind about our (seemingly) increasing addiction to simplistic narratives and the (seemingly) increasing difficulty in finding writers who even try to avoid it these days.  But since I haven’t written it yet, you won’t have to suffer through it right now.  Maybe someday, though.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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